Continuous advances in modern communication technology have increased the amount of online content that users consume. Online content may include, for example, text, audio and/or video delivered via a web browser, via proprietary applications, etc. Users may be able to access online content at their residence, at their workplace and at all points in-between via their mobile device. The ability to access online content at any time from virtually any location has created a substantial demand for content providers. While many traditional content providers such as, for example, print media, television producers, movie producers, game developers, etc. are moving to provide digital delivery and streaming, at least one issue that continues to be problematic is the protection of proprietary content. Proprietary content may include, for example, code and/or other programmatic constructs placed on an end user device to support the presentation of online content. While content providers may need to, or at least desire to, place proprietary content on an end user device, they also want to protect the content so that it cannot be usurped by others.
Traditionally, content providers relied on legal agreements or encryption to protect their proprietary information. Legal agreements provide no protection without vigilant enforcement, which may add substantially to the cost of doing business. Encryption may provide protection, but has the unintentional side effect of serving as an enticement for users that enjoy overcoming it (e.g., hackers). As a result, any type of encryption will be a target for hackers to circumvent, ultimately rendering the encryption useless and the proprietary data exposed. As a result of this vulnerability, content providers must either risk their proprietary content being exposed to end users or must resist placing any valuable data on the end user's device. A solution that is fully executed by a remote resource (e.g., that does not place any data on the end user's device) may place a substantially high processing burden on the content provider's equipment (e.g., network, servers, etc.), which may result in higher operating cost and poor quality of experience for users.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.